LEAVES FROM MY SCRAP BOOK.
I.
| "I think Homer, as a poet, inferior to Scott." T. C. Grimckè—Pamphlet. |
The gentleman whose words I have just used, maintained on all occasions the superiority of modern over ancient literature. He prefers the better portions of Milman's "Samor, Lord of the Bright City," to the better portions of the Odyssey; and contends that "Scott's description of the battle of Flodden Hill, the midnight visit of William of Deloraine to Melrose Abbey, &c., are unequalled by anything in the Iliad or Æneid."
Now such comparisons are plainly unreasonable. "To read Homer's poems, is to look upon a brightly colored nosegay whose odor is departed," or, if not departed, at least lost to our dull and ignorant sense. The subtle odor of idiom and provincial peculiarity—the stronger odor of association are entirely lost to us. I may better illustrate my idea. Every one will recollect the following couplet in the description of William of Deloraine:
| "A stark moss-trooping Scot was he, As e'er couched border lance by knee." |
Reversing the order of things, suppose these lines read by a Greek of twenty-seven centuries ago; suppose him even well acquainted with the English tongue—could he appreciate their beauty? Let the Greek attempt to translate the lines into his own language. He begins with stark. The nice excellence of this word he knows nothing of. He finds that its meaning is somewhere between stout and swift, and gives the Greek word "οχυς." The first downward step has been taken. He next pounces upon the term, moss-troopers. He translates this "Ληστης ιπποτʼ ανδρειο." Couched, is an idiom which he cannot translate; he gives us by way of equivalent, "εβαλλε." Border lance, is beyond his version. He contents himself with a simple "δορυ,"—for how is the word Border to be translated? It is a word depending on collateral matters for its meaning. These matters—involving the storied reyd and feud—must be known before the word can be understood; and twenty centuries would blot out all remembrance of the Percy and Douglas feuds. The word Border is therefore, wholly lost in the version.
The Greek version would read when completed—
| Ληστης, καλεδονος οχυς ην ιπποτʼ ανδρειος ʼΟυ, το δορυ μηδεις αθεμιστον, αμεινον εβαλλε, |
which may be re-translated into